Ancient lines put down in rocks by people living in Peru's coastal deserts thousands of years ago may have been signposts to ancient trade or festival gatherings, researchers say.
They were put down by people known as the Paracas, early settlers of the Andean coastal region in southern Peru around 300 B.C., making them centuries older that the country's famous Nazca lines.
Some of the lines built in the highlands overlooking the coast are almost two miles long.
The Paracas also built large ceremonial mounds near their coastal homes, and the rock lines may have been "arrows" pointing the way to them for people interested in trade with the Paracas.
"If you want people to come to your trade fair, you have to point the way," archaeology Professor Charles Stanish says. "These lines point straight to the ceremonial mounds on the coast where people could trade."
In a study co-authored by Stanish, researchers mapped out 71 lines occupying a region of around 15 square miles some 12 miles from the coast, midway between highland settlement and the coast.
The lines were found to be pointing to five Paracas ceremonial mounds, and some were aligned to the winter solstice, occurring in June in the Southern Hemisphere, which would have been a likely time for trade or festival gatherings.
Stanish believes the lines were advertising the existence of the ceremonial centers on the coast to pilgrims and traders from Peru's inland highlands.
"They were meant to be seen from above," he says.
They have been dated as older than the famous geoglyphs created by the Nazca people, who carved gigantic figures of birds, monkeys and other animals into the desert floor in southern Peru.
The Paracas lines about 125 miles south of the capital of Lima, in additional to being older, were for a different purpose.
"They used the lines in a different way than the Nazca," Stanish says. "They basically created these areas of highly ritualized processions and activities that were not settled permanently."
A number of Paracas settlements on the coast were likely in competition to attract people for trade and ceremony.
"I don't think people needed the signposts, but it was more kind of a ritualized thing, where you come down and everything's prepared," he said.
